Japanese team sets new standard: 1000km on a single charge

Giving us yet another reason to get behind electric, the Japan Electric Vehicle Club recently exceeded its own Guinness record for longest distance driven without recharging, achieving a staggering 1,003.184 km (or about 623 miles).

The club's Mira EV, a modified Daihatsu Mira, was powered by a Sanyo battery system containing more than 8,320 lithium-ion batteries, the very same kind found in laptop PCs.

Running at a speed of about 40 km/h (or about 25 mph), the team employed 17 people taking turns as drivers during the course of their 27.5 hour effort. It took place at a track in Shimotsuma, in Ibaraki Prefecture.

While Guinness World Records still recognizes their previous 555.6 km journey from Tokyo to Osaka last year as the official record, the team has requested that the organization officially recognize this latest feat as the new milestone, according to Kyodo News.

Given that they nearly doubled the previous standard, one hopes that this drive makes it into the books.